[Biotechnology]Fighting the Deadly Disease - AIDS stocks

Disease Of The Century Although companys have come up with numerous treatment, this disease which is one of the deadlist of the century known as AIDS causing by human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, is the cause of millions of deadth each year. With 40 million people worldwide including 2.5 million children currently infected, many of them in Africa, there are still penty of needs to develop more advance cure to counter this deadly virus. The following companys are focusing on AIDS related treatment:

• Abbott Laboratories(ABT): the Abbott Park, IL based multi-billion dollar company develops various health care products including pharmaceutical and diagnostic products. Abbott develops Kaletra, a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, for human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) treatment. Kaletra, approved in 2000, belongs to the category of HIV protease inhibitor and is the successor to the company's previous AIDS fighting drog Norvir. The company is comparable to Merck(MRK) in size as it has annual revenue of 22.34 billion with net income of $3.37 billion. The stock has rose from 52 weeks low of $37.5 per share last December to $42.5 today at P/E of $19.73.
• Calypte Biomedical Corp. (HIV): the Lake Oswego, Oregon based company develops urine-based HIV antibody test which is sold in United States, China and Brazil. The company recently acquired 51% equity interest in China-based Beijing Marr Bio-Pharmaceutical Corp. in order to produce its HIV test products in China. The financial of the company is still weak as it is still losing a lot of money, $14.19 million net loss on revenu of $3.16 million. The stock is currently trading at 28 cents per share.
• Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IDIX): the Cambridge, MA based company develops drug for the treatment of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The stock in late March plunged from $20 to $12.25 today on concerns over the company's trail on its hepatitis C treatment. Although the company has so far developed 18 products for the treatment of HIV, the treatments have yet to yield to promosing result. The company is still under research to develop a better drug candidate to heal the HIV positive patients.
• Samaritan Pharmaceuticals Inc. (LIV): the Las Vegas, Nevada based company develops drugs for the treatment of AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Its HIV treatment candidate SP-01A, an oral HIV entry-inhibitor, has completed phase II human clinical trails. The stock is currently trading at 56 cents per share as the company has yet to generate enough revenue to cover the opearting expenses. The company will still need to raise cash to fund its ongoing trial and research of its HIV drugs.